


Scattered bits of light and shadow

by Kiraly



Category: A Redtail's Dream (Webcomic), Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: Ficlet Collection, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-13
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-17 15:33:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 2,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16977261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiraly/pseuds/Kiraly
Summary: In light of Tumblr's current state of chaos, I'm going through my blog to find all the miscellaneous bits of writing I've stashed there over the years. Since I don't want to spam everyone with a million little fics all at once, I'm collecting them into a few larger fics with multiple chapters. This one is for platonic/family relationships. Emil/Lalli stuff goes inVignettes, and I'll make one for other romantic pairings if I find any.Anyway, expect this to have a lot of chapters - I'll put an list in the first chapter notes describing what each chapter has once I've posted them all.





	1. Ghost Eyes, Fireflies

**Author's Note:**

> **Index:**
> 
> Chapter 1: Ghost Eyes, Fireflies (Ensi & Lalli). An encounter in the forest.  
> Chapter 2: The sun in the shape of a girl (Tuuri & Onni). Poetry, sad  
> Chapter 3: Tweet stories (various). A group of stories written in 280 characters or less.  
> Chapter 4: Can't be bothered (Hannu & Ville). Poetry  
> Chapter 5: 10 prompts, 10 words (various). A group of stories written in exactly 10 words each.  
> Chapter 6: Night Shifts (Prologue Characters). Five short stories about nights during Y0.  
> Chapter 7: The Late Bus to Hokanniemi (Jonna & Joona). Liminal spaces, Weird Stuff happening at night.

_Ensi & Lalli - based on a Tumblr [post](http://deep-dark-fears.tumblr.com/post/131990080502/happy-halloween-an-anonymous-submission-to-deep) from the "Deep Dark Fears" account. In case that link goes bad at some point, the text of the four-panel comic says "A long time ago, I was camping with my family. I saw some fireflies off in the woods. But my mother told me to stay away. They were the eyes of ghosts."_

_“Look.”_  Lalli gestured the word instead of saying it out loud, tugging his grandmother’s sleeve to get her attention. She tensed, then followed his pointing finger. Tiny lights flickered on and off near the forest edge, low to the ground and drifting aimlessly. Lalli had seen some up close once: little beetles that gave off a sickly glow. Nothing dangerous like a beast or troll, of course. He knew better. But he was supposed to point it out when he noticed something new in the forest, and the lights hadn’t been there before.

Grandmother watched for a while. Lalli did too–that was one of his lessons, to keep his eyes on the forest and not stare at her. Even so, he could feel the moment her attention shifted to him.

“Do you know what those are?” Her voice carried no farther than Lalli’s ears, riding the breeze like a fallen leaf.

Lalli nodded. “Beetles.” He was sure he’d been just as quiet, but Grandmother frowned.

“No. Those.” She jerked her chin up, and Lalli mimicked the motion. He looked past the glowing beetles on the ground, past the ones hovering just above–and saw two more glowing spots, higher up. He stared and stared, and the lights did too. They didn’t blink.

“Not glowworms,” Grandmother said. “Ghosts.”

The word acted as oil on a fire. The lights flared, and now Lalli could hear the voices growing too, whispering in his mind.

_HelLO liTtlE oNE._

Then Grandmother’s voice cut through with the one word he was always, always to obey.

_“Run.”_


	2. The sun in the shape of a girl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A poem based on the Synchronised Screaming prompt _Tuuri - The sun in the shape of a girl_. Written from Onni's perspective. Reference to canonical character death.

_Tuuri- The sun in the shape of a girl_

You arrived at dawn  
all rose-fingered  
bright-voiced  
eyes gleaming  
like you knew a secret  
worth keeping.

Carried it, light  
inside your bones  
rushing forward  
thoughtless  
of consequence  
your hand dragging mine.

I turned to follow  
as trees grow  
toward the sun  
but fell back  
frightened  
I could not keep you.

Safe  
was never your word-  
only my heart  
cried it  
spilled out flooded  
our roots  
you swam away.

That night  
the shore sang  
you gathered  
the last light  
a cloak around you  
and sank   
below the horizon.


	3. Tweet Stories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A series of bite-sized ficlets from Synchronised Screaming - we did a Twitter prompt week, so all the posted stories had to be 280 characters or less. Various characters. Originally posted to this [Twitter thread](https://twitter.com/worldsentwined/status/1005630308597760001). (There is a little bit of shippy stuff in this one, but it could all be read as platonic if you want so I don't feel like breaking those off into a different collection).

_Lalli & Tuuri - Let’s pick blueberries_

> “I hate them” Lalli complains, hunching his shoulders.   
> Tuuri holds her hands open, soothing. “You don’t have to EAT them! Just come with to make sure nothing eats ME!”   
> It’s a terrible idea, like all of Tuuri’s ideas. He should say no.   
> She holds out a cookie.   
> He sighs. “Fine.”

_Tuomi & Little Hare - Your favourite tune_

> “That one? Are you SURE?” Tuomi squints up from the kantele, not sure if his friend is joking or not. “I expected something more…traditional.”   
> Little Hare bristles. “Why, because I’m older than I look? Don’t judge me!”   
> “Whatever, sorry.” Tuomi says. “Anyway, here’s Wonderwall.”

_Any/Any - Hair brushing_

> “How do you manage?” Onni winces as the comb snags, a red snarl halting its progress.   
> Reynir shrugs. “Leaving it braided helps. The sauna…doesn’t.” Humidity is hell on hair, but Onni’s never seen it this bad. Another knot; he can’t take any more.   
> “Let me.” He takes the comb.

_Onni/Reynir - Postcard (2 parts)_

> “Dear Onni,   
> I hope this card gets to you okay! I don’t actually know your address–if you even have those in Keuruu. Maybe you all get mail at an office? My brother Bjarni says they do that on the navy ships. I should’ve bought a bigger card, looks like I’m going to run out of sp

> “Reynir,   
> I assume that postcard was from you, since I don’t know anyone else in Iceland. You did not leave room to sign it. Maybe send a letter next time, it will allow more space and not get so smudged. We do have addresses in Keuruu, mine is enclosed.   
> Regards,   
> Onni Hotakainen”

_Agneta - Just another day at work_

> “The train got attacked today. A giant came right through the roof, can you believe it? What’s the point of having a HUGE SAW up there if it’s not going to take care of that kind of thing? I thought that kid was gonna be sick all over my shoes.” Agneta’s cat purrs, and listens.

_Emil/Lalli - Cooking for the boyfriend_

> “I’m sorry, I really thought I could do it! They’re not ALL ruined.”   
> Lalli looks from Emil’s mournful expression to the stack of “pancakes”. He’s not sure, but even in Sweden they’re probably not supposed to look like…that.   
> “You don’t have to-”   
> He finds one-perfect-and eats it.


	4. Can't Be Bothered

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For a Synchronised Screaming poetry prompt week.   
> The prompt was Hannu - can't be bothered with this poem - nonnet.   
> (A nonnet is a poem that loses a syllable with each line)

I can’t be bothered with this poem.

Who even reads these things? Not me.

Poetry is doggerel–

I don’t mean  _you_ , Ville.

I didn’t say DOG–

Don’t get upset.

Stop crying.

Ville.

Please.


	5. 10 prompts, 10 words

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A handful of tiny ficlets from a Synchronised Screaming post - the week's theme was 10-word stories. A couple of these are a bit shippy, but I didn't want to make a whole separate chapter for them elsewhere, so just...skip them or skip this chapter if you don't want to see that?

**Onni - on being an asshole**

“ _Eagle owl_ , not an  _asshole!_ ” Shouldn’t have let Tuuri translate.

***

**Onni/Reynir - wet dream**

“Onni! Remember me? It’s Reynir!”

“AUGHHH!”

*splash*

Oops. Mage overboard.

***

**Any aRTD - winter again - Hannu**

No sun.

Wet socks.

Can I just sleep until spring?

*

**Any aRTD - winter again - Ville**

SNOW!

Snow snow SNOW!

Hannu, did you see?

It’s snowing!

***

**Agneta - close call**

“Lose your hat, Agneta?”

“Better my hat than my head.”

***

**Tuuri - haircut**

It looks better short. Bolder. Fiercer. Newly shorn, she’s reborn.

***

**Reynir - counting sheep**

“Nineteen, twenty…hey! Get back here! Wait, stop, don’t…” *sigh*

***

**Lalli - Scout report**

“Weird stuff. Don’t go there. Or there.”

“And there?”

“Mrrr.”

 ***

**Sigrun/Tuuri - hospital bed**

It’s not meant for two. They make it work anyway.

***

**Jonna/Riikka - first kiss**

A question–uncertain, hesitant–becomes a smile against your lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The "eagle owl, not asshole" thing was based on a google translate fail, I believe. ^_^


	6. Night Shifts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I could have sworn I posted these on here somewhere already, but I can't seem to find it so I'm posting it again. (If it turns out I did and you can point me to the other place where I posted them, please do!) 
> 
> This series of drabbles was written for a Synchronised Screaming prompt - Any characters - night duty. I decided to write one for each set of characters from the Prologue. So while there's a bit of canon shippy-ness in here, I decided these are more general stories so they belong in this collection.

_Norway_

“If you fall asleep on guard duty and shoot yourself in the face, I’m gonna laugh at you.”

Aksel jerked upright at Sigrun’s words. “I wasn’t sleeping! I was just…relaxing, a little. It’s hard to stand guard all night.”

“Suuuure.” Sigrun poked him in the ribs. “And the snoring, that was all part of your plan to relax?”

Now Aksel stiffened with indignation. “Excuse you, I do  _not_ snore.” He folded his arms, then seemed to remember his gun and hastily shouldered it.

“Uh-huh. Keep telling yourself that.” Sigrun chuckled. “Come by when we’re off-duty. I’ll prove you wrong.”

————

_Denmark_

There was something soothing about the barn after sunset, Michael thought. As a teenager, he’d hated getting stuck with calf duty, waiting in the circle of lamplight for something to happen. At best, he’d be bored and then sleep deprived the next day. At worst, he’d have to assist with a long, messy birth, which was not something he’d missed when he moved to the city. But he’d missed the quiet.

“Is calf duty always this boring?” Signe asked, stifling a yawn. Her head dropped to his shoulder. “Wake me up if something happens.”

Yes, this was actually quite nice.

————

_Finland_

A wail cut through the still evening. All five adults bolted upright, then sank back down when they realized it wasn’t a troll. Eino and Tuuli rolled over, grumbling. Saku and Aino simply looked at each other.

“It’s your turn,” Aino mumbled. She’d lost track, but Saku probably had too.

He wasn’t going without a fight, though. “I sang her to sleep for an hour,” he protested.

From Aino’s other side, Kaino sighed and heaved herself up. “I’ll get her. You two sleep.”

_I never signed up for this,_  she thought, bouncing baby Ensi to quiet her.  _No regrets, though._

————

_Sweden_

“Do you want me to drive for a while?” Ulrika’s voice was thick with sleep, but she sat up straighter in the passenger’s seat. “You must be getting tired.”

Stig flexed his hands on the steering wheel and considered. It had been a few hours, and before long he’d need a break. But the other three–five, if you counted the animals–still slept, and if he pulled over now, they might wake up.

Anyway, it was nice to have a moment to themselves.

“I’m all right,” he said. He reached over and took Ulrika’s hand. They’d get through this together. Somehow.

————

_Iceland_

Every second spent at sea was awful, but nights were the worst.

“Damn. Why do we always run across the tiny boats at night? Almost feel bad for them.”

Árni didn’t reply. What could he say? He felt bad about it no matter the time. At least this incident had come at the end of his shift, so he could go back to his bunk and hide his grief in the pillow.

Sleep didn’t help, though. He saw them there, too, up-close and personal instead of a radar blip, silent accusations. It was enough to make him stay awake forever.


	7. The Late Bus to Hokanniemi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Written for a Synchronised Screaming prompt.
> 
> Joona & Jonna - passing through liminal spaces

“Oh  _shit._ ”

Jonna looks up from her novel at Joona’s exclamation. “What?”

Joona is frowning at his phone. “I didn’t realize how late it was—we’re going to get stuck here if we don’t get moving. Dad’s going to be  _pissed_ at us.” He holds out the device to show her, and Jonna feels like swearing too.

“It’s not  _that_ bad,” she says as they pack up their bags and leave the coffee shop. “We still have plenty of time before the late bus.”

Joona grimaces. “Yeah, but the late bus is…you know. Kind of  _weird_.”

He’s right, as much as Jonna hates to admit it. This isn’t the first time they’ve been late leaving the city for Hokanniemi, and they’ve spent more time on the late bus than either of them would like. They’ve  _seen_ things.

Everything seems normal when the bus pulls up to the stop. It usually does; there’s nothing mysterious about grungy, worn-out public transit, unless you look too closely at the stains on the upholstery. The twins manage to board and find seats without incident. They’re practically the only passengers. The other two—a tired-looking woman in a hospital uniform and an old man wearing three coats who seems to be asleep—don’t say anything.

And nothing seems odd when the bus first pulls away, either. It’s not until it passes out of the city, into the space where there are no street lights, that things start to turn strange. It’s the noise that changes, first. The bus engine’s drone takes on a surreal quality, less complaining metal and more music. If she listens hard enough, Jonna could almost believe someone is singing. But then the bus hits a bump and the sensation shatters like glass.

The next odd thing happens when the bus stops to let on a new passenger. This is not unusual; there are a few far-flung hamlets between the city and their village, and only this bus to connect them. It is a little weird that this person gets on at a place where the bus doesn’t usually stop. At least, Jonna’s  _pretty_ sure it doesn’t. She doesn’t remember the lightning-scorched tree by the side of the road, and the signpost is so faded she can’t read the name of the stop. But the person boards the bus in the unhurried way of someone who does this all the time. And the bus driver doesn’t say anything, even when the person—Jonna keeps thinking of them as ‘the person’ because they’re wearing some kind of furry hooded cloak that makes it impossible to tell anything else about them—pays with a handful of coins that echo strangely in the fare box.  
  
It’s hard to look directly at the hooded figure. It’s hard  _not_ to look. Jonna is glad she snagged the window seat, because at least she has Joona as a barrier when the person sits down in the row directly across from them. When they pull out a knife and a chunk of wood the size of Jonna’s hand, Jonna forces herself to tear her gaze away. Even with her eyes averted, she can hear the rasp of metal on wood.  
  
 _Scrape. Scrape. Scrape._  
  
Looking out the window isn’t necessarily any better. The scenery blurs together, and Jonna can’t tell if it’s her tired eyes or something…else…that’s making the trees twist into clawed shapes. There are lights, too, strange glows that pop up and disappear before she can properly focus on them. Jonna is so distracted by those that she nearly misses the strangest sight of all.  
  
“Holy shit!” Joona’s voice startles her out of her daze. “Is that…it can’t be!” He leans into her shoulder to stare out the window. Before Jonna can ask what he’s talking about, she sees it too: someone is running through the forest, keeping pace with the bus. Their gait looks…familiar.  
  
“Is that…that can’t be  _Hannu_.”  It can’t be, but it’s either Hannu or someone who looks eerily like him. He’s wearing weird clothes, too, a furry cloak an awful lot like the one the person across from them has on. And he’s not alone. Someone or some _thing_  else is running with him, but their form is harder to pin down. Sometimes, Jonna could swear it’s a snake, or a squirrel flitting through the trees. Other times, they almost seem to be swimming, or running on four legs. For an instant, Jonna is sure she sees Ville, wearing the same strange furry cloak as Hannu and the hooded figure, but a second later she’s seeing the other Ville, Hannu’s old dog.  
  
Whoever,  _whatever_ they are, Hannu and his companion are running faster than a human should be able to run. The bus isn’t terribly fast, but even on his best day, Hannu wouldn’t be able to keep this up. And they’re glowing, too, the same weird light that keeps distracting Jonna from the trees. The bus rattles in time with their footsteps. The hooded figure’s knife keeps shaving off curls of wood.  
  
 _Scrape. Scrape. Scraaaaaape.  
_  
The bus screeches to a sudden stop. Jonna almost flies over the seat in front of her, and Joona lets out an audible “oof!” as he smacks into Jonna’s elbow. In the confusion, Jonna looks away from the window, and when she looks back, the spectral Hannu is gone.   
  
“Why did we stop?” she whispers. It feels like a bad idea to talk any louder. Joona shakes his head, but is saved from answering when the woman in scrubs rises and gets off the bus. Oh. This is her stop. Now that Jonna looks, she recognizes this part of the route. They’ll be home in another few stops. She turns to Joona to say so, but gets distracted by what’s behind him. Or rather, what  _isn’t_. The hooded figure is nowhere to be seen. All that’s left is a pile of wood shavings.

The weirdest thing about the late bus is that, no matter what happens, the world goes back to normal when the ride ends. Before they know it, the driver is announcing Hokanniemi and they’re getting out. The bus is just a bus; the town is quiet.

“Jonna! Joona!”

“Ugh. VILLE. What are you doing?”

_Mostly_ quiet.

The twins turn to see Hannu and Ville emerge from the woods. Ville waves cheerfully, and Hannu scowls. For a second, it looks like they’re glowing—but no, they’d just passed through a patch of moonlight, that’s all.

“What are you two doing out so late?” Joona asks.

“Went for a walk,” Hannu says. “And I could ask  _you_ the same question.”

“We caught the late bus back from the city,” Jonna explains.

“The late bus!” Ville gives Hannu a look. “Isn’t that the one that has…you know…the  _weird_ things?” He shivers.

Jonna and Joona exchange a look of their own, and Jonna laughs. “Weird? You have  _no_ idea.”


End file.
